Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has resigned from the African Democratic Congress (ADC), alleging that the party’s recently concluded primaries were manipulated in favour of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
In a statement posted on his Facebook page on Monday, Lawal claimed the primaries at various levels were “massively rigged” to ensure Atiku’s emergence as the party’s preferred candidate.
“I am exiting the ADC because its just-concluded primaries were, at all levels, massively rigged in favour of Atiku Abubakar. I sense a conspiracy of silence, of which I want no part. Most members of the party are behaving as if this is the normal thing to do,” he wrote.
According to Lawal, election results were allegedly altered to favour Atiku and his supporters, while winners of some contests were replaced with individuals loyal to the former vice president.
“Results were simply written or rewritten to favour him and his coven. Even where they allowed some semblance of an election to hold, the winners were replaced with members of his syndicate. In reality, it was a disgraceful charade,” he alleged.
The former SGF said he decided to leave the party because he did not want to be associated with what he described as a “rigging machine” ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He further argued that supporting Atiku’s presidential ambition would effectively hand President Bola Tinubu an easy path to re-election.
“For me, working for Atiku means giving Tinubu an automatic ticket to a second term. I believe Tinubu might, comparatively speaking, end up a better Nigerian president than Atiku could ever be, despite the criticisms against his administration,” Lawal said.
He added that he did not join the ADC to contribute to making Nigeria “progressively worse” and disclosed plans to consult with like-minded associates on strategies to prevent Atiku from winning the 2027 presidential election.
As of the time of filing this report, Atiku had not publicly responded to the allegations.
However, official results released by the ADC showed that Atiku secured 1,846,370 votes to defeat former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who polled 504,117 votes, while businessman Mohammed Hayatu-Deen received 177,120 votes.
Reacting to concerns over the exercise, ADC National Chairman, Senator David Mark, maintained that the primaries were conducted transparently and allowed members to make their choices freely.
While acknowledging that the process was not perfect, Mark said there was room for improvement.
Lawal, who served as SGF under former President Muhammadu Buhari, resigned from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in June 2025 before joining the ADC.
